Is Hayao Miyazaki sexist regarding female animators?

Last month, Hayao Miyazaki — or rather, a bot that grabs portions of his interviews — tweeted that the rising number of female applicants was a signal of anime’s decline:

They say it’s over for animation in Japan. When we look for new hires only women respond, and I get the feeling that we’re done for. In our last hurrah we borrow from outside staff (i.e. outsource), but soon we won’t be able to do that forever.

Suffice to say, it raised questions regarding Miyazaki’s views on women (which one would think would be fairly well-established given the number of excellent female characters in his movies) and their role in anime. Not surprisingly, there’s plenty of interesting discussion in the comments. If anything, the whole incident is a stark reminder of the difficulty of cross-cultural communication, especially when the Internet gets involved.

More good discussion and context over at The Hooded Utilitarian.